Hammer of the Dads!
Posted on 04/09/2009 7:51:57 PM PDT by Gordon Greene
CHEYENNE — In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same — all while her family's plan did not include texting.
That means the family's provider — Verizon — charged them for each incoming and outgoing text message.
The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25.
"It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said.
The bill was legit.
Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been sending most of these messages at school. That's more than 300 texts within an eight-hour period every
Gregg Christoffersen was shocked to see his daughter's texting bill. (9News)day for the whole month. Needless to say, it drew attention away from what she should have been doing: paying attention in class.
"She went from A's and B's one semester to F's in two months," Dena's dad said.
Hours after the enormous bill arrived, Gregg Christoffersen took a hammer to his daughter's phone.
He and Jaylene also grounded Dena until the end of school.
"I felt really bad, and I have learned my lesson," Dena said, with her head down.
Since she lost her phone, Dena's grades have gone up, and the texting is down to zero.
As for the phone bill, the family says Verizon has been willing to knock it down to a reasonable level.
The Christoffersens are asking school administrators at Johnson Junior High School to crack down on cellphone use during school.
If this were you're child, what would the punishment be?
She’d have to do some type work to payoff at ;east a portion of the bill. Enough to make it hurt.
Kid would have to HOLD the phone in her hand while it was hammered down.
Sounds like they did the right thing.
;east=least
Make her pay the bill. Babysit, collect cans... whatever. May take a few years but it will be a lesson well learned.
This costs Verizon ZERO, nothing, but they will take advantage of this situation.
Cell phone companies are the scum of our planet.
She had her phone taken away from her after they got a phone bill for $500.
I don't blame the Dad for doing what he did.
At the same time, a little bit of research and planning on his part could've gotten the child unlimited texting for about $10.00.
True, that only solves the bill problem, not the grade problem. But after the first $200+ bill on my son's texting the first thing I did was get on the phone to Verizon. I was going to cut it off, but they explained the unlimited plan.
Dad needed to research before giving the kid a phone.
Unlimited texting is the way to go.
Verizon is in business to make money. They offer a service. They tell you what it costs. They're not responsible for raising your children.
We understand, however, that under the New Obama World Order making money is a bad thing.
But that Dad had all the information he needed to limit or prevent this.
Hammer of the Dads!
BUMP to that.
IMHO, if your plan doesn't include texting, the phone should refuse to send text messages. Period.
Agreed. I knew what the text messages cost when we got our son a phone.
My mistake was thinking "he won't use more than that..."
$4,756.25 for $10.00 worth of texting? Yikes! I’m sure glad I’m not impressed with that texting stuff.
This is a response right out of DU. The girl did text the messages and the charge was legit. Should she be bailed out as well as part of this whole sale destruction of personal responsibility ? You would just created a life long moocher and victim. Verizon has invested billions in infrastructure to bring you this wonderful technology, why are they scum ? This corporate bashing belongs at DU.
“Dad needed to research before giving the kid a phone.
Unlimited texting is the way to go.”
You folks have got to be kidding me...
Did you read the story??? The kids grades went from A’s to F’s. Why let her even have a phone? (My wife made me write this).
No, she would have to get a job and pay off “all” of it. Lesson learned. Until then … no phone privileges.
“Verizon is in business to make money. They offer a service. They tell you what it costs. They’re not responsible for raising your children.”
Yeah!!!!!!
Can I have your autograph?
I cannot tell you how many times I told my carrier, Sprint, to block texting on my families service only to find they did not do it.
Every month the bill comes with some crooked fraud on the part of Sprint.
Now we know why the cell phone companies won’t allow customers disable text messaging. It’s too profitable and they know teenagers are the source of most of it.
“I cannot tell you how many times I told my carrier, Sprint, to block texting on my families service only to find they did not do it.
Every month the bill comes with some crooked fraud on the part of Sprint.”
Tell me, George... is your family still texting?
“Unlimited texting is the way to go.”
No. No telephone is the way to go. No 13 year-old should have her own cellphone - and don’t bother with the “safety” argument. All of us grew up safely without our own personal time and money wasting cellphone.
Just another reason why the next generation of American kids will be working as cheap labor for the Chinese and indians.
Give her a big hug, tell her that they were ‘good people’
she was texting and schedule payments with the phone
company. Then write the payments off by double on my taxes
as ‘education expenses.
Then write a letter to the 0bama administration that
they should pay for student’s cell phone texting
calls when they are in school.
But, then I an 0bama supporter.
“Now we know why the cell phone companies won’t allow customers disable text messaging. It’s too profitable and they know teenagers are the source of most of it.”
Sounds like some folks need to disable their teenagers instead...
Don’t we conservatives believe in personal responsibility and responsibility for our own families?
no cellphones for my kids unless they pay for them
No, we conquered the texting issue after a few months of tug-o-war. But it always take a billing cycle and another half month to discover what happened 45 days earlier. This article sounds like in only happened for one billing cycle too.
If the child had been told not to do it and did it make them pay the bill. Then if they keep their grades up after paying the bill then look into a plan that is unlimited. There are many things in life that are only good in small quantities and at certain times. After that I would encourage the school to limit phone time to lunch time. Passing notes back in the day would get you an hour of detention after school and a letter to your parents. If it was that easy to catch note passing then there is a dereliction of duty by these educators not to crack down on this.
“The Christoffersens are asking school administrators at Johnson Junior High School to crack down on cellphone use during school.”
Oh is that it. Why not have the school also teach your kid how to get an abortion or perform sexual acts.
Perhaps it’s time for parents to figure out how STUPID it is to trust a teenager on a cell phone plan. They deserve it.
“Give her a big hug, tell her that they were ‘good people’
she was texting and schedule payments with the phone
company. Then write the payments off by double on my taxes
as ‘education expenses.
Then write a letter to the 0bama administration that
they should pay for student’s cell phone texting
calls when they are in school.
But, then I an 0bama supporter.”
A reasonable punishment for the children of Socialism... great response!
Doesn’t this amount to just about one text message every 2 minutes? And this is during school...I don’t even see how this is possible. And none of the adults around this girl noticed that she was texting ALL THE TIME? It must have been like the classroom in Clueless.
People used to text me all the time. I CANNOT prevent them from doing it and I still get billed even though I did nothing on my part to cause the charge.
“no cellphones for my kids unless they pay for them”
Good Lord! You horrible person!!!
No, really... I was beginning to think we were the only cruel people left in the world. Thank you for making me feel there’s some common sense left on this conservative website.
I think NO texting is the way to go if it is done at school.
What the father did and what you suggested.
She needs to learn what it’s like to have bills like that to pay off.
Get rid of your phone and take back your life.
Had a similar situation with my son and texting. I paid the $300 dollar plus bill. He got job and paid me back. Lesson learned.
Yeah, smash the phone.
This texting crap goes on at the college level as well. I don’t know how many parents realize that little Johnny got a C because he wasn’t paying attention and was texting during class and not because the ‘prof is a jerk.’
No more cellphone until she can pay her own bill and right after she paid for that first bill too.Good thing I never had kids they would’ve hated me.
Me either. Its like a high tech version of passing notes in class to me. Its a major distraction one would think to learning in school. I also don’t get chatting in chatrooms to someone who one can simply call up on the phone itself. I think generally you can exchange information much faster in a phone conversation than having to type it all out regardless of all the abbreviations they use.
“Perhaps it’s time for parents to figure out how STUPID it is to trust a teenager on a cell phone plan. They deserve it.”
I love folks who think right (by that of course I mean, think like me).
“People used to text me all the time. I CANNOT prevent them from doing it and I still get billed even though I did nothing on my part to cause the charge.”
That’s something worth being angry about. I’ve always thought that was scum-suckingly bad... As for the girl in the story, there is no good excuse.
Any company that will offer for $10 or $20 an unlimited service, and then bill unknowing customers in the hundreds and thousands ($4,000+) should be shot.
The problem is, that you have no control over receiving texts. You can delete them without reading them, but if you read them you get charged.
So you almost have to get unlimited texting whether you want it or not just to protect yourself.
I’d rather have it as a disabled feature.
“Good thing I never had kids they would’ve hated me.”
I have three... none have cell-phones. Kids hate you when they don’t respect you. Kids don’t respect you when they can run over you.
My kids love me (so they say) and I love them too, but we’re strange... no phones, no tv or computer in the room, access on one computer to only the sites we allow and no television (or commercials) we don’t approve of.
I know it’s like living in the caveman days but, hey!
Educators try to crack down on it because of the cheating angle. I know of one situation where a student got a 0 on her midterm by the school because she was caught with a cell phone in class the day of the exam.
They read her the riot act, and then asked if she wanted to tell her parents about it or if she wanted them to. Those were her choices.
What the daughter doesn’t realize now is that four thousand dollar phone bill will be brought up at family gatherings and in front of every potential suitor for the rest of her life. Her dad is going to get his money’s worth out of that bill and smashed phone.
That is just a bit under a month of my pay...I would have to kill her. /sarc. To be honest, I would have to take it from her college fund and replace it when I could. She would also pay off what can be done.
“I’d rather have it as a disabled feature.”
I agree completely. It would help, but this kid knew what she was doing. The school knew what she was doing. The parents were blindsided, so the kid deserved harsh punishment and the teachers deserve to be fired. She couldn’t have been the only kid doing it.
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